We wish to blog about current happennings in Nigeria that could impact on local (small, medium or big) businesses

Main menu

Hi. My name is MD Idiake and I would like to show you how we used eVS2015 (our electronic Voting Platform via SMS) to quickly and quietly resolve a potentially contentious issue.

Now, I was at Shiroro, Niger State recently, facilitating a seminar for select staff of one of Nigeria’s largest corporations, and we needed to quickly appoint a Class Coordinator. However, when two people indicated interest in this position, I immediately knew we had to Conduct a “Snap” Election.

So, this is how it went.

1. The two contestants were Shehu Mohammed (aka Shekky Barrister), a man and Abdulazeez O. Rashidat, a woman. We gave code A1 to Shekky Barrister and A2 to Abdulazeez O. Rashidat. Please, see Graphic below.

2. There was a total of Eighteen (18) people including the two (2) contestants who indicated interest in voting and their contact details, especially their Phone Nos were quickly captured unto the platform. Please, see a sample data capture page (mine of course) below:

3. The Election had a “tight” time frame: Just two (2) hours for the (two-stage) accreditation and actual voting to take place. Any attempt to vote and/or accredit outside of the two-hour window, would not count. That’s the screen below, minutes before accreditation/voting could commence.

4. Now, voting has commenced @16:00 hrs and within 50 minutes, this is the position of the process so far.

5. I now decided to accredit and vote from 16:54. Please, see my interactions with the platform below.

a. Accreditation is usually a two-stage process. The 1st stage involves the Voter texting 999 to the voting app’s authorized no.
b. The voting app responds with a (unique) 18-digit accreditation code ONLY if the Voter’s phone no is registered in the voting database.
c. The Voter can re-send the entire SMS (or just the 18-digit code) back to the voting app. I re-sent the entire SMS!

d. Once the voting app receives the SMS containing the (unique) 18-digit accreditation code, it checks to confirm that it is exactly what it originally sent out to the (registered) voter.
e. If the received SMS containing the 18-digit accreditation code checks out alright, then the voting app sends a congratulatory SMS to the registered.
f. This marks the end of the 2-stage accreditation process.
g. At this point, the accredited voter simply sends an SMS containing the code of his/her preferred candidate to the voting app. In my case, I sent in A2.
h. If the accredited voter sent in a valid code (valid in the sense of the candidate code being among the ones registered for the position being contested for), the voting app still checks for accreditation status and the validity of the candidate code before it proceeds to update the count of the affected candidate if all checks ok and sends a congratulatory message to the voter for voting successfully.
i. This is the screen of the voting app (next image), as I received congratulatory message.

6. And by 18:00 hrs, we already had a WINNER… Yes, AbdulAzeez O. Rashidat had more votes casted in her favour (10) as against those casted for Shekky Barrister (6) out of 16 valid votes from 17 accredited voters.

7. Well, I wouldn’t KNOW if gender issues were at play here since ONLY six (6) women were among the registered voters, but the logs will NOT reveal too much about the IDENTITY of the voters for the purpose of CONFIDENTIALITY.

In Nigeria and virtually all over Africa, conducting elections that are free, fair and without controversy remains a contentious issue.

It is usual after recent elections for the electorate to be polarized along the lines of government (usually the victors) and the opposition (usually the losers) with accusations and counter accusations of vote rigging, voter manipulation, ballot papers snatching, results being re-written etc., filling the air.

A case in point are the controversies that have trailed the outcomes of the recent gubernatorial elections held in Nigeria in the last two (2) years.

What does it Mean to Vote?

Per Bing, Microsoft’s Search Engine, Vote can be a Noun (a formal indication of a choice between two or more candidates or courses of action, expressed typically through a ballot or a show of hands) or a Verb (give or register a vote: “they voted against the resolution”)

Types of Voting

Basically, there are two (2) types of voting or selecting candidates in an election: Manual (wherein Ballot Papers are used as obtains in Nigeria and much of Africa) or Electronic (Where digital Election devices or computers that are connected online are used mostly in the developed countries).

In both types, a voting register of eligible voters (usually 18 years and above) is compiled and on the set date for elections (during which public holidays are usually declared with its attendant huge costs on the economy, voters are expected to visit various polling units to cast their votes, where they are accredited and made to go through several other procedures peculiar to each electoral commission before they eventually vote.

A major advantage of electronic voting over manual voting is that results of the voting can be available online, real-time, although this might not totally remove the suspicions of vote tampering such as what recently happened in the American elections, where Donald Trump triumphed over Hilary Clinton.

Why SW eVS2015?

We are pleased to announce the successful development of the world’s first electronic voting platform via SMS, which makes it The World’s Most Advanced Electronic Voting System!!!

Now, we can ALL Kiss Goodbye to ALL forms of Malpractices in our Elections…

How does it Work?

A

Every Position being Contested for, would have a code e.g. President=A, Governor=B, etc.

Every Candidate for each Position would also have a Code e.g. 1st Candidate for 1st Position=A1, 9th Candidate for 2nd Position=B9, etc.

Only successfully Accredited Voters, can Vote on Election Day via SMS.

Features

Most Convenient– No need to declare Public Holidays anymore just because of Elections. Vote at your convenience from the comfort of your homes, offices, etc.

Completely Tamper-Proof– Results are automatically and instantly processed and displayed as votes come in via SMS.

Completely Hacker-Proof– Since it is not “online” in the Conventional way, it is immune to any form of remote electronic attack.

Completely Secured– The Location(s) of the Server(s) can be anywhere and not where most people would expect, thereby preventing any likely physical attack.

Completely Credible– Every Vote (valid or invalid) is automatically logged (at a Maximum of 5-Levels) and details of votes can be produced on demand in cases of dispute

Patent

The developers of this system have already successfully applied for a copyright from the Nigerian Copyright Commission.

Where are we Now?

Although we have been able to demonstrate the correct workings of this system in a simulated environment, we are yet to effectively gauge its actual performance in a real-life scenario (like an actual election) and therefore we believe we still have a long way to go to convince the relevant authorities that this is the way to go if we are to make our elections (much) less controversial and very credible.

We are using this medium to solicit the cooperation of the appropriate bodies to enable us test this system in several real-life scenarios to give us the much-desired opportunity to detect potential bugs (and flaws), eliminate them and ultimately improve this system to a world-class solution that can be deployed anywhere in the world.

Well. It has been ‘Cooking’ for Several Months Now. Finally, we at 234Aproko.com are PLEASED to announce that from Sunday Dec. 1st 2013, we shall be commencing from 8am FULL TEST TRANSMISSION on our flagship Online Radio Station, GoodNewsRadio.ng, with the two (2) LIFE Transforming Services of New Covenant Gospel Church Headquarters with PAPA Felix Omobude, the current National President of the Pe…ntecostal Fellowship of Nigeria in Benin City. This station shall be 24Hours of mainly Business-Related Information. Infact, we are trying to position the station as the no. 1 resource of what is GOOD about Nigeria, to Nigerians and to the whole world. Pls, join hands with us to make this work. For now, you can listen in via 234Aproko.com. Our Android Player will be available for FREE download in the next couple of days. See U at the top! “If it ain’t GOOD NEWS, then it ain’t WORTH REPORTING…”See More